The fear of crossing streets, or its terms dromophobia and agyrophobia, is a
specific phobia
Specific phobia is an anxiety disorder, characterized by an extreme, unreasonable, and irrational fear associated with a specific object, situation, or concept which poses little or no actual danger. Specific phobia can lead to avoidance of the o ...
that affects a person's ability to cross a street or roadway where cars or vehicles may be present. The term dromophobia comes from the Greek ''dromos'', meaning
racetrack
A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also use ...
.
Causes of dromophobia
Dromophobia may result from experiencing a
road accident and thus may be classified as a subtype of
panic disorder
Panic disorder is a mental and behavioral disorder, specifically an anxiety disorder characterized by reoccurring unexpected panic attacks. Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear that may include palpitations, sweating, shaking, short ...
with
agoraphobia (PDA). As such, dromophobia, especially fear of crossing streets alone may be a component of accident-related
posttraumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental and behavioral disorder that can develop because of exposure to a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, warfare, traffic collisions, child abuse, domestic violence, or other threats ...
, as a reaction to a situation reminiscent of the past traumatic event. Sometimes this behavior may be misinterpreted during PTSD symptom assessment as a caution (i.e., a normal learning behavior) rather than fear (which is an abnormal avoidant behavior).
Fear of crossing streets may also result from an
anticipatory anxiety related to person's
limited mobility
A physical disability is a limitation on a person's physical functioning, mobility, dexterity or stamina. Other physical disabilities include impairments which limit other facets of daily living, such as respiratory disorders, blindness, epilepsy ...
. For example, a person with
stiff-person syndrome
Stiff-person syndrome (SPS), also known as stiff-man syndrome (SMS), is a rare neurologic disorder of unclear cause characterized by progressive rigidity and stiffness. The stiffness primarily affects the truncal muscles and is superimposed by sp ...
may experience attacks of increasing
stiffness or
spasm
A spasm is a sudden involuntary contraction of a muscle, a group of muscles, or a hollow organ such as the bladder.
A spasmodic muscle contraction may be caused by many medical conditions, including dystonia. Most commonly, it is a muscle c ...
s while crossing the street.
Dromophobia may be present in people, especially children, with
autism, or other neurological conditions that impact the ability to judge the speed of an approaching car.
See also
*
Incident stress
Incident stress is a condition caused by acute stress which overwhelms a staff person trained to deal with critical incidents such as within the line of duty for first responders, Emergency medical technician, EMTs, and other similar personnel. If ...
Further reading
* Szasz, Thomas. ''A Lexicon of Lunacy''. Transaction Publishers, 1993. . p 66.
References
Situational phobias
Pedestrian safety
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